Diane King

The average child will receive a whopping 17,700 calories worth of chocolate this Easter.

The pile of sweet treats adds up to over double the recommended allowance across the full four-day bank holiday weekend for a child aged 7-10, and ten times the recommended daily sugar allowance.

According to a survey by Wren Kitchens, the average child is gifted a chocolate trove of:

• 4 small chocolate eggs

• 5 medium chocolate eggs

• 4 large chocolate eggs

• 4 bags of Mini Eggs

• 4 Creme Eggs

• 3.5 Lindt bunnies

• 3 mini Kinder Eggs

• 3 chocolate bars

Totting up to an incredible 2,000g of sugar (that’s 500 teaspoons) and 1,000g of fat, even eating this across the four-day bank holiday weekend would not come close to the RDI – a child’s sugar intake of this magnitude should be spread over 83 days.

To really put it into perspective, the average sugary Easter haul is the equivalent of: 200 Krispy Kreme doughnuts, or 57 cans of Coca Cola, or 79 bags of Skittles.

A Mini Egg here, a chunk of chocolate egg there, a Lindt bunny ear…our favourite Easter indulgences can be deceptively calorific. In fact, there are shocking numbers hiding in some of the nation’s favourite Easter treats:

Registered Nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed said of the findings: “As a Registered Nutritionist, I’m not here to take ALL the fun out of Easter.

“However, these figures are quite alarming and it’s easy to see how the numbers can easily add up over an Easter weekend.

“Add this to the fact that many children eat chocolates and sweets every day, and then their intake of calories, fat and sugar really become a concern. There are plenty of ways to celebrate family occasions and events such as Easter without over relying on chocolate and sweets.”

The full results of the survey can be found at http://www.wrenkitchens.com/blog/chocolate-overload/